There are basically two approaches to growing a city, according to one of the country's most influential urban planners.

Typically, governments will start with a project idea. Then they'll identify grants, bonds or incentive packages they can offer developers to get the project done. Then, they'll take the project to the public and explain all the reasons they really can't afford not to do it.

Then, they will move forward with the project in the hopes that it will turn out to be profitable someday.

Chuck Marohn, founder of the nonprofit Strong Towns, calls this type of development "orderly but dumb."

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Marohn argues a better way to develop is by embracing a "smart but chaotic" method, one that's driven from the bottom up by citizens, rather than from the top down by governments.

"The worst aspect of our modern development mindset is that notion that we pay our taxes, and then someone else is supposed to do something," Marohn said to the crowd that arrived Monday evening at the Brownsville Community Center with an interest in making their neighborhoods better.

"That was never the way this country was founded, the way it was built, the way we became successful," he said. "That was never part of the equation. It was always that, 'We did it.'"

Marohn's mission is helping American cities become more financially independent and resilient. During his presentation, he said the best way cities can do that is through incremental growth and improvement over time.

A streetlight here, a sidewalk there. Traffic calming measures. A new coat of paint on homes and businesses. Planting trees. Any of the myriad of improvements that make a community a better place to live, work and play.

Chuck Marohn, president and founder of Strong Towns, speaks Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, during his "Neighborhoods First" presentation at the Brownsville Community Center.(Photo: Jody Link/online@pnj.com)

Marohn compared Memphis' infamous pyramid-shaped arena to a community-driven project to beautify a rundown Memphis art district. Local business owners cleaned up, painted bike lanes, set up pop-up shops and invited the surrounding community in for a weekend.

When it was all said and done, the exhibition resulted in $15 million in new investments, 25 new businesses, 29 property renovations and a 50 percent increase in rent revenue.

Marohn said communities should always be looking for "the next, smallest thing we can do right now."

He said citizens should look for opportunities to improve: parks where overgrowth could be trimmed to improve visibility and decrease crime; thoroughfares where crosswalks or traffic signs could make crossing easier; or places where pot holes could be filled or trees could be planted.

He said citizens should be willing to go to their governments will ideas and solutions, rather than complaints, that they should bring as many people as they can to amplify their voices and that most of all, they should be prepared to roll up their own sleeves and get work done.

He said not every effort will bear fruit. Still, those that don't will not bring great loss, while those that succeed could bring tremendous benefit to people's quality of life.

Chuck Marohn, president and founder of Strong Towns, speaks Monday, Dec. 11, 2017, during his "Neighborhoods First" presentation at the Brownsville Community Center.(Photo: Jody Link/online@pnj.com)

He said neighborhoods could be the change people want to see, and "We're not going to do it by demonizing one thing, we're going to do it by supporting something different."

Marohn first visited Pensacola in September as part of CivicCon, a yearlong partnership between the Pensacola News Journal and the Community Studer Institute to promote community dialog and makes the area a better place for everyone.

Marohn was invited back by Baptist Health Care and was also invited to speak in Panama City. More information on his work is available at strongtowns.org.